Harish Kairpal, Finance Secretary of Knitwear Club, has requested the Punjab government to allow them to operate their units in non-designated areas. Dinesh Kalra, President of Ludhiana Business Forums and a garment manufacturer also urged the government to reopen units in MLU areas and non-designated areas like Shivpuri, Kundanpuri, Kidwai Nagar, Chandan Nagar.

According to representatives of Knitwear Club, one of India’s largest bodies of the garment manufacturers, one of the reasons for a high percentage of garment units in Punjab not being able to start operations is that the government has granted permission to only those factories which are located in the designated industrial areas, whereas 85 per cent of Ludhiana’s garment industry is based in non-designated and mix-land use (MLU) areas.

Vinod Thapar, Chairman of the club revealed it’s been almost 20 days since the state government allowed factories to start operations. But, it had said that only those in designated industrial areas can reopen. As a result, close to 25,000 micro and small garment and textile units are still shut.

In another setback to these manufacturers, for more than 45 days their units have been shut and they have not even able to make any sales. Now the units are totally drained out now and can’t pay the workers before operations resume.